Harry Potter and the Search for the Soul Rod

Chapter Two: Home Life

A/N – Hey all, sorry this chappy took so long to get out. But between school, and everything else, this got pushed to the back burner.

If you notice any mistakes in this chapter, I am sorry, my beta (Kristen) is out of town right now. And since I wanted to get this to you as soon as possible, I figured you wouldn’t care about a few mistakes.

Once again, I would like to give credit to Vicarious Leigh for the use of her Character Merc Thompson.

Thanks for reading, and I hope everyone enjoys this chappy!!!

Harry put his feet up on the couch in his living room, staring into the cackling fire. His eyes got lost in the flames, watching one flare up, reach its peak, and die down into nothing. The flames changing color from the beginning of its life to the end. He slowly came out of his revere, and looked around him. The living room was as still as he it had been two minutes ago when he had sat down. But the stillness was to be expected, it was only two o’clock in the morning.

Even though Harry was a grown man now, he still thought longingly of the family he didn’t have, the extended family that his children would never meet. More so than the family he didn’t know, Harry missed the person he had gotten to know. Sirius Black. Guilt still plagued Harry when he stopped long enough to think about it; normally that time was at night. Dreams of a shocked, stark face falling through a black veil.

When he had these dreams, he was fifteen again, waiting for Sirius to come back out the other side, waiting for him to laugh and say “Gotcha!”

But he never did.

Harry looked at the clock on the wall, and decided that he should go back to bed now, before his wife found out that he had gone.

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 The next morning was the first time they had been home in around six months. School had kept them away from there home, and their friends. So Harry and Hermione agreed that today they would have some of their friends over so that they could catch up on what they had been missing. James, Ron, Merc, Luna, Draco, Ginny, and Neville were all coming over that afternoon.

Harry couldn’t wait to see his friends again, even though he had seen them last night at the party. He hadn’t had much of an opportunity to talk to them much, and he looked forward to it now. Harry also wanted to get to know Merc better, since he had never met her before.

The last reason he wanted to see his friends again, was because he had something important to tell them. Something he had found out in collage, something that had made his world turn upside down.

Destinies Army was going to have a meeting again, after eight years.

Interrupting Harry’s thoughts, there was a knock at the door. Harry made his way across the large foyer area, and opened the door. Apparently all his friends had decided to show up at one time. As they filed into the house, Harry realized that one of them was missing. Hermione. After another seconds thought, Harry remembered that she was upstairs taking a shower. He hoped she came down soon.

“Hey guys, glad you all could come so early!” Harry said politely.

Harry guided them to the living room, and everyone had a seat around the TV which was broadcasting a quidditch game. Since Harry and Hermione now lived in -- muggle that is -– all the electronics worked very nicely.

  The friends talked for about a half an hour, about casual things, this and that. Really they were waiting for Hermione to come down. When she did come down she made quite an entrance. She came walking down the stairs only wearing a towel, and her hair was still dripping wet.

“Harry,” She said from behind a yawn. “There’s no more hot water, sorry I used it all….” That was as far as her sentence got. Her eyes, that had been half closed with sleep a minute previous, were now wide open.

“Well,” Ron began, but had to cough. “Hermione I’m glad you feel comfortable around us, but that’s a little much….” Ron said, his ears turning red from his restrained laughter.

Hermione shot Ron a deathly glare, and stalked back upstairs, clearly embarrassed. Twenty more minutes went by before she finally did come down, fully dressed this time.

“Much better.” Harry murmured under his breath as she passed.

She walked about, as if nothing had happened. That was Hermione for you, she was not going to even bat an eyelash.

Once everyone had settled, Harry decided that it was time for his speech to begin.

“Well, in case you haven’t noticed, Destinies Army is all here. Except for you Merc, but if Ron trusts you, then so do I.” Harry said, not sure if he should let her be here for this. He saw Ron squeeze her hand, and decided to let it be. “The reason I called you here, is because I found out something very important at collage. During my hours of boring research, I stumbled across some old documents from the Department of Mysteries.” That statement alone, got their eyebrows raising.

“Harry, dear, sweetie pumkin,” Hermione started in her most endearing tone. “WHY IN THE NAME OF MERLIN DIDN’T YOU TELL ME?!?” Hermione yelled at him.

“I wanted everyone to know at the same time.” Harry said, expecting her to blow like that. For someone who craved knowledge as much as she did knowing that she had missed something was a terrible let down. “The information I found was some background info on the Black Veil.” As Harry said this, the already raised eyebrows were now accompanied by wide eyes. “I know what it was used for, and I know how it works. But the main thing I wanted to tell you all was that I found out something even more important than that.” Harry took a deep breath before he said this. Preparing himself for the upwelling of emotions this was going to cause.

“I know how to get Sirius back.” Harry said to his stunned audience.